Costa Rica Family Vacations

Customized Family Vacations to Costa Rica

Volcanoes and rainforests and beaches, oh my! Our specialty is in creating stress-free, kid-friendly, parent-pleasing Costa Rica family vacations. Browse our customizable packages to get started, and together we’ll create a vacation you’ll remember forever!

Take a Costa Rica Family Vacation

Hanging bridges, belching volcanoes, resort pools, and masked sloths – they’re the stuff of nine-year old dreams. Busy kids, family memories, smiling faces, and quiet sunsets – well, those are the hopes of parents everywhere. And your family vacation to Costa Rica with kids can deliver it all, for everyone.

How to Choose the Right Destination

Stress-Free Travel Family

Tips for Traveling with Kids to Costa Rica

The Top Family Vacations to Costa Rica

• Family Celebrations
• Graduation Celebrations
• Girls’ Getaways
• Family Adventure Travel
• Family Conservation Trips

Welcome to an adventure playground and natural wonderland, where there’s a sight, an activity, and a place for every interest, every travel style, and every family member. Where there’s a curiosity, a discovery, an adventure to inspire childlike wonder, at every age.

Welcome to Costa Rica and to Costa Rican Vacations. Since 1999, we’ve developed the experience, the expertise, and the in-country customer service to build a personalized family experience based on your travel personality.

We plan Costa Rica vacations for families that guarantee complete peace of mind. Tap into our unbiased advice, our kid-approved things to do, and our family-friendly luxury hotels – to the best family vacations in Costa Rica. Because we’re parents, too, and we get you.

Traveling to Costa Rica with kids doesn’t have to be difficult. The last thing you want when you’re with your family on vacation is to think about logistics, booking issues, or problems.

When you book our Costa Rica family vacation packages, you also have access to our 24/7 customer service team. Never worry about anything; we’ll take care of it, while you sit back and simply enjoy!

Check the Best Guide to All-Inclusive in Costa Rica

Choose the Right Destination for Your Family Vacation to Costa Rica

Once you know WHAT you want to do then give some thought to WHERE you want to do it.

Costa Rica has a variety of landscapes and hotels to match. Do you want to be by a beach or looking at a volcano? How about both? We tailor your family vacation to be a multi-destination trip.

We’ll also help you choose the best accommodations in Costa Rica for families. Because we’re parents, because we live here, because we’ve personally stayed at all of the hotels we offer – from large and luxurious for an all-inclusive family vacation, to boutique eco-resorts, hotels, and lodges for a catered set of family interests – we’ll help you find the accommodations that are perfect for both parents and kids.

As you plan your next family vacation, let our team work with you to create a unique experience that will satisfy your entire travel group. We also offer a 100% money-back guarantee on all our Costa Rica family vacations: We’re that confident you’ll love traveling with us.

24/7 In-Country Service: Stress-Free Costa Rica for Families

What do you do if there is an emergency when you are on vacation—or even if you just need some advice? Booking yourself or with a ‘faceless’ agency can leave you stranded and somewhat alone.

When you book with Costa Rican Vacations, you can rest assured that no matter what happens on your vacation, you’ll have an entire team of people, here in Costa Rica, waiting to help you and your family.

Our travel experience team are dedicated to speedy and successful resolutions – to a large range of requests and unexpected complications. There’s nothing that 20 years in planning Costa Rica family vacations – and, more recently, the COVID crisis—hasn’t taught us. From medical emergencies and making arrangements for lost passports, to lost cell phones and offering on-the-spot helpful advice, we’re one call away, day or night.

If you and your family decide to book last-minute additional tours, need to request special items, or just want to discuss the best options for tonight’s dinner, call us. We’re happy to help!

Knowing that your family is in safe hands—and that you have all the support you could ever need—will make your family trip that much less stressful and much more enjoyable. After all, don’t you and your family deserve the best? Don’t delay, get in touch today and discover how our in-country travel experience team can help make your Costa Rica family vacation an incredible experience.

Make This Your Best Vacation Ever…You Deserve It!

Tips to Travel in Costa Rica with Kids

A Costa Rica family vacation – well, a family vacation anywhere – can be tough. There’s a lot of planning and strategizing to do, and the planning phase is never complete without some crossed fingers, heavy negotiating, and familial compromise.

The thought of air travel and car travel and paper-thin hotel walls likely has you feeling a little stressed. Because, let’s be honest: It would probably be easier to get a herd of African elephants to dance the Christmas Nutcracker than it is to pull off “successful” travel with kids (especially young ones) – without help, that is.

That’s where we come in. With a bit of preparation—plus a dose of good cheer and a sprinkling of luck— our tips on Costa Rica for families will see you through round-trip, from home to the Rich Coast and back again. And what an amazing trip it will be!

1. Book in Advance

Spontaneity is an exciting way to travel, but it’s best left to solo or adults-only vacations.

After a long day on the road, you don’t want to arrive to a town with no hotel vacancies. If you promise your kids the turtle-watching tour of a lifetime, don’t discover that you’re visiting during the off-season. When it comes to kids and happy traveling, it’s better to book and plan well ahead of time.

2. Take Your Time

We don’t have control over every aspect of traveling—delays, traffic and missed connections happen. But in our experience, the absolute best gift you can give your traveling family is time.

Once you’ve made it to Costa Rica, don’t pack so many tours and attractions onto the itinerary. Kids, especially younger ones, are all about the journey. They want to touch every rock and inspect every inch of fungus. Make sure you schedule enough time to let kids travel like kids.

3. Pack Important Items

The traditional packing advice is to pack lightly. That still holds true—except when you’re traveling Costa Rica with kids and there are items that, if absent, will cause an absolute fit. This could be a special blanket, but also includes a favorite book, a preferred snack food, or the only song that will get your child to sleep.

This guideline extends to brand-name goods, too. Many areas of Costa Rica have stores and supermarkets that carry imported goods. But not all brands and not all goods. So, if there’s only one diaper brand that prevents your child’s rash, verify with your Travel Consultant in advance.

4. Buy What You Can Locally

It’s preferable to leave most non-essentials at home. For example, there are dozens of new cookies, crackers and other snacks to discover in any supermarket.

Diapers—even swim diapers and pull-ups, can be found almost everywhere. Baby wipes, antibacterial gel, sippy cups, coloring books—these things are all readily available throughout Costa Rica. Again, if you have questions, just ask your Travel Consultant!

5. Don’t Forget the Meds

If your children (or you) are on any type of medication—either prescription or over-the-counter—pack it. Even with OTC medications, you may not be able to find your preferred brand locally.

6. Ready an Activity Bag

Create an activity bag that your children can take on the airplane, on the shuttle bus, or in the backseat of your rental car. It helps to mix in standby favorites—say, a busy book for toddlers or handheld game system for the older set—with new diversions.

Bonus points for throwing in Costa Rica-themed activities, like a rainforest search-and-find, or a beachy tablet app. (Ask your Travel Consultant for recommendations.)

7. Pack the Tablet

Even if you avoid extended screen time at home, traveling can be the perfect time to bend the rules.

Download some age-appropriate apps, load up the tablet with a few downloaded-for-offline-use movies/videos, and let your children veg out during a long car ride or airport layover. Your sanity will thank you.

8. Be Prepared for Costa Rican Weather

This sounds obvious, but pack weather-appropriate clothes – being too cold or too hot can cause serious crankiness. And on that topic, don’t underestimate Costa Rica’s ability for cold or hot.

If you’ll be traveling to higher elevations, like the Monteverde Cloud Forest, be sure to bring warm layers and cozy pajamas.  If you’re hitting the beaches, pack plenty of ocean-friendly sunblock.

9. Embrace a Routine

Children thrive on routine. When you’re traveling through Costa Rica with kids, that routine is often thrown out-of-whack—and kids are often cranky and irritable, as a result. We’ll work to plan activities, transportation, and other logistics around your children’s regular bedtimes, meal times, nap times, and other important routines.

Most planned tours have morning and afternoon departures, so it’s usually easy to pick a time that works for your whole family. If hotel check-in and check-out times could cause problems, ask your Travel Consultant to request early check-in or late check-out when you make your reservations.

10. Involve Your Kids in Planning

One of the most important parts of your family vacation to Costa Rica is the pre-planning. Take some time to tell the kids about where you’re going. Set the scene: let them know that they’ll see monkeys or that the beach will be right outside their hotel room door. Get them excited about—and involve them in—everything you’ll see and experience.

Give your kids the chance to pick at least one activity—totally their choice. If this is a little too intimidating, let them choose from a parent-approved list. There are so many choices for family fun, including hanging bridges, safari river floats, kayaking, canopy zip lines, and waterfall horseback rides.

The Number One tip when trip planning is: Make sure to pick tours that will wear them out. Whether it’s exhilarating zip-lines or whitewater rafting, a full day of please-touch activities or long (but interesting) hikes, choose tours they’ll love until they beg for bedtime.

Remember, you’re in paradise—a kid-friendly and adventurous paradise. Costa Rica is the perfect choice for traveling with kids, from the youngest infants to surly teenagers and beyond. So, take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy your vacation!

Costa Rica Family Vacations for Every Occasion

If you’re wondering what types of family trips we can put together, the answer is ‘the one you need.’ With our experience and local knowledge, you can rest assured all your wants are taken care of.

Family Celebrations in Costa Rica

Gone are the days when family vacations meant long car rides or standing in line at a mega-theme park. Today, families are traveling further afar than ever before.

The dynamics of family groups are also changing. Destinations like Costa Rica no longer only serve the nuclear family of years past.

Today, grandparents, cousins, and even multiple families are increasingly planning epic, multigenerational journeys together. Every day, we help families plan adventures that inspire, invigorate and educate.

Here are a few Costa Rica family vacation tips on organizing celebrations and group adventures:

A Graduation Celebration in Costa Rica

Often, family groups are traveling together to celebrate a monumental occasion or event. For example, a high school or college graduations is an important milestone to celebrate together, as a family. This monumental accomplishment is typically followed by a life change that may mean the graduate won’t be able to travel as freely.

Many of our clients gather their extended families for one last big trip before the graduate embarks on the next stage of his or her life. For these groups, balancing sightseeing with relaxing together as a family is important. Oftentimes, graduation celebration trips are more about celebrating and spending time together with extended family, than hitting every landmark or point of interest in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica has a wide range of private villas, complete with staff, that can accommodate even the largest groups. This ensures your group is well looked after, so you can make the most of your family time.

A Remote and Tropical Girls’ Getaway—Easier Than You Think

In recent years, a number of world-class yoga studios and health-focused hotels have opened across Costa Rica. The yogic principles are simple to learn and ascribe to when surrounded by the calm and natural beauty found in Costa Rica.

With ample opportunity to practice yoga, ladies of the family gather in Costa Rica to enjoy healthy, fresh food, and days relaxing at the spa. Costa Rica is the perfect destination for a healthy, invigorating and pampering girl’s getaway.

The Family Who Adventures Together

Did you know that Costa Rica is the birthplace of the zip line? With adventure in our DNA, Costa Rica offers plenty of opportunities for adrenaline-seeking families to play and explore together.

From remote jungle lodges to beach-front resorts, families celebrate milestone events together on the adventure of their choice. You can zip line through the forest, hike up volcanoes or take surf lessons.

Working Together as a Family to Support Conservation

Though Costa Rica totals only 0.3% of the planet’s landmass, it holds 5% of the total biodiversity. This is unmatched anywhere else on Earth. There are a number of ways travelers can get their hands dirty helping scientists and biologists preserve Costa Rica’s wildlife and the environment.

Is your child embarking on one of the numerous conservation-oriented internship or volunteer programs in Costa Rica? Consider joining your young conservationist here, before or after the program.

We can plan a conservation experience for the entire family, including things like working with the Tortuguero Sea Turtle project, assisting in the protection of the endangered jaguar, or helping and accepting the hospitality of a local farming family.

You Will Love Your Holiday with Us, We Guarantee It!

Interested in learning more? Our Costa Rica expert, Rodo Alvarez hosted a webinar, Guide to Family Travel in Costa Rica, with Tara Cabantingan, our Travel Consultant and guest speaker.

What destinations to pick that will best suit your needs? Which hotels are the most—and most genuinely—family-friendly? Can you trust your kids with babysitting services? What tours are most suitable for your family members? Get insight on these questions and the other tips we share with our clients, when planning a trip to Costa Rica!